Spatial agglomeration characteristics and influencing factors of health risk intensity of heavy metals in cultivated soil in Jiangsu Province

Abstract

[Objective] Environmental health risk has become the focus of current global research due to the fact that environmental pollution causes harm to human health. The research on health risk of heavy metals in cultivated soil at the provincial level based on interdisciplinary perspectives is of great significance for expanding the understanding of environmental health risk, formulating the control strategies of health risk, and protecting public health. [Methods] Based on the theories of human-environment relationship, the essential connotation of environmental health risk, and spatial statistical analysis methods in geography, we constructed an analytical framework for health risk of heavy metals in the soil of cultivated land. The characteristic factors, the spatial agglomeration characteristics, and the influencing mechanism of health risk were analyzed. Furthermore, the key points for health risk control were identified. [Results] The results show that: (1) The health risk levels of heavy metals Cr, Pb, Cd, As, and Hg in the cultivated soil of Jiangsu Province are within acceptable range. But Cr, Pb, and As were the main risk characteristic factors and need to be controlled. (2) Heavy metals in cultivated soil in some counties of Northern Jiangsu Province had a greater impact on the relative health risk level than the rest parts of the province. The degree of influence of different characteristic risk factors for the region was As > Cr > Pb, and the spatial distribution generally presented a pattern of northeast > southwest. (3) As, Cr, Pb, and the comprehensive health risks showed a spatial agglomeration trend, and the spatial structure of agglomeration exhibited a high-high and low-low pattern. (4) The q values of the four detection factors areal average fertilizer application, residents’ education level, road density, and areal average GDP were higher than 0.3, and any two detection factors showed either a nonlinear enhancement or a dual-factor enhancement effect. [Conclusion] The health risk intensity of heavy metals in cultivated soil puts forward a fresh thought on environment and health researchs, and the research results could provide the practical basis for formulating control strategies on heavy metals in cultivated soil in Jiangsu Province.

Keywords

• |health risk intensity|heavy metals|cultivated soil|geographical detector|jiangsu province